


In Central Park

by SerialObsessor (ibelieveinturtles)



Series: Accident Prone [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Lab Accidents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 16:35:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10994757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ibelieveinturtles/pseuds/SerialObsessor
Summary: Darcy winds up in Central Park. Blame Jane.





	In Central Park

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prequel to [In The Library](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7848688). I’ve been meaning to write more in this little au for ages, and well, it finally happened.
> 
> Un-beta’d, all mistakes are my own.

 

**In Central Park**

 

***

 

Contrary to popular belief, Jane and Darcy are not at the end of a 77 hour no-sleep bender when the incident happens. They aren’t 57, 37, or even 27 hours into a star-gazing-machine-building marathon.

It is, in fact, about ten in the morning. They’ve both had a good night’s sleep. They’ve both had their morning coffee **and** a decent breakfast. They’ve taken all the necessary safety precautions and double checked - no, triple checked - all the wiring etc.

There is no excuse for what happens.

Except that something does happen. One minute Darcy’s leaning over to turn the printer back on, and then there’s a ‘pop’ and a flash of light and she’s on her back staring up at blue sky.

Blue sky.

You can’t see blue sky from Jane’s lab. Well, not unless you walk over to the window, open the blinds and peer out. But normally, you can’t see blue sky in Jane’s lab. Which means… she’s not in Jane’s lab. She blinks a few times as she does a mental rundown of her body. No pain anywhere. She can feel her all of her toes and all of her fingers. Her head aches a little bit, but no more than its usual background ache for this time of the month.

“Hey, lady. Are you okay?”

She carefully turns her head to where she thinks the youngish sounding voice is coming from. She can see trees now, but no person.

“Miss? Are you okay?”

“Where am I?” she asks, turning her head the other way to see a pair of children standing close by.

“Central Park,” the older girl says, holding on tightly to the younger boy’s hand.

“Cool,” Darcy replies, struggling to sit up. She looks around. Everything looks normal, just like it should at this time of year. That’s a good sign. She looks back at the kids and frowns slightly.

“So, this is gonna sound like a really weird question,” she says, “but humour me, okay?”

The kids look at each other, shrug and nod.

“What’s the date?”

The kids exchange a glance that clearly says ‘yep, weird’ and then the girl says, “September 25.”

Darcy nods to herself. Okay, so it’s the same day. That’s good. Then a thought occurs to her.

“Wait - what year?”

The kids exchange another dubious look before the older one shrugs, and replies, “2012.”

“Awesome!” Darcy pumps a fist and climbs to her feet, looking around for landmarks so she can orient herself properly. “Thanks guys.”

“Yeah, no problem,” the older kid says. “You ah, you need anything else?”

She gives them a huge grin as she shakes her head. “Nope, I’m all good now. Just gotta get myself back home. Oh!”

She startles as her phone starts ringing. She’d forgotten about her phone. She pulls it out of her pocket and answers it without looking at who the caller is.

“Hello?”

“Darcy? Oh thank god. Where are you? Are you okay?”

“Jane! I’m fine, I’m in Central Park.”

“Central Park? What are you doing there?”

“Well, I don’t actually know, Jane - what AM I doing here? You tell me, huh? Hang on!” She puts her hand over her phone for a moment and turns back to the kids. “Where’s the nearest subway station?”

“103rd - follow that path, turn right at the fork,” the girl replies, pointing across the lawn. She gives her another huge smile and mouths thanks, returning her attention to Jane as she walks down the gentle slope to the footpath.

“- but I don’t know, Darcy. I don’t know what happened! Where in Central Park are you? Want to me to send someone to get you? I’m gonna send someone to get you.”

“Nah, it’s okay Janey, don’t worry. There’s a subway station, I’ll just catch a train.”

“Darcy, you don’t have your bag with you,” Jane says, just as Darcy comes to the same conclusion.

“Shit, I don’t have my-”

“Okay, Tony’s sending a car for you. He says just wait where the driver can see you.”

“Wait, Tony Stark’s there?”

“Of course he is, Darcy. Something happened, you disappeared, Jarvis alerted him,” Jane explains. Then she lowers her voice. “ **And** every other bloody Avenger - they’re **all** here, Darcy! Come back and save me!”

Darcy can’t help laughing at that. They don’t see Avengers in the lab very often.

“Okay, I’m on my way - tell whoever I’ll be waiting near the lights at 103rd,” Darcy says. “I’ll see you soon, Jane.”

“See you soon, Darcy.”

She slips her phone back into her pocket as she looks around. It’s a nice day, so there’s quite a few people wandering the park, even if it isn’t even lunchtime yet. She half wishes she could just stay here for a while instead of going back to the tower to deal with Jane, Stark, and his posse of stray superheroes.

Well, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, she thinks to herself, and sets off towards the edge of the park.  She’ll come back another day.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank Google Maps for it’s satellite imagery of Central Park, and random internet pages for giving the address of Avengers Tower as 200 Park Avenue. I had Darcy appear on Great Hill, Central Park, cos it looks pretty, and not too isolated.
> 
> My Tumblr, if you're interested, is  
> [ibelieveinturtles](http://ibelieveinturtles.tumblr.com/)


End file.
